All posts by noshampoo

noShampoo is a disruptive product. We’re making an attempt to destroy a product that we see as hazardous. This is an ethos we share with Balloons Blow and other movements that aim to redefine our existence away from marketing drives and bottom lines. If you agree, then SHOUT IT OUT. Join our Facebook page. And why not like Balloons Blow, as well?

This is why we started Balloons Blow… The massive increase in balloon pollution did not arise from children’s accidental slips, it is the result of tricky marketing & an industry that promotes & encourages the mass littering of their product. When you see something alarming, & find that the only discussion about it is from people in the business spreading propaganda, you can’t just stay silent. We had to show people what we are finding. These are just some of the balloons we have collected from our favorite beaches & other natural areas. We find more latex balloons than mylar. This littering & the harm it causes is totally preventable.

Well, isn’t it funny, just when you get the hang of things and start taking them for granted, everyone else is just starting the journey. To those of you who have just started, this is a look back on five years without shampoo.

The good news: I don’t even think about it anymore. My hair is now a creature of habit and independence. If it wants a rinse, it asks me from time to time (one every couple of weeks in the winter, more in the summer). Otherwise, it pretty much leaves me alone. That’s why this blog has transcended its original purpose: to tell you of the journey. My journey is finished, but many of you are just beginning, so, lets have some volunteer editors who’d like to join the NoShampoo editorial team. I can offer you a free t-shirt and a whole lot of fun, and who knows, as the concept grows, so will the rewards.

Now, let’s have a look back at what I’ve learned:

1. It was an adventure.

Yes there were ups and downs, times when my hair cried out in confusion. But thanks to all you noShampooers, I always had the strength to carry on.

Any form of journey is by nature a learning experience. From this plateau, I can see the clear blue sea off to the south, the mountains to the north, the green dragon, and the white tiger. And most heartening of all, I see the great mass of you coming to join me.

4. Did I mention it was fun?

So, good luck to all of you out there and don’t forget, if you want to be the next sifu, write it in this here comment thread. And remember, however your hair feels, you will be welcome with open arms.

The diversity of the work is impressive. Animated drawings, powerful audio-visual effusions, poetic-critical histories, sensual messages and gadgets distributed in 27 works show the latest work of art and film-makers from the region and beyond.

Well, folks, here it is. The guide you’ve all been asking about, compiled from personal experience, close observation of other noshampooers, and in depth internet research.

So how do you go noshampoo?

Step 1. Make the decision.

As Nietzsche pointed out, the fundamental human resource is will to power, a superset of will power. Yes, once you have decided, really decided, to go noShampoo, the rest of this list is mere child’s play. But what decision do you have to make?

Step 2. Formulate the decision exactly.

Do you want to discontinue using shampoo, that generic item which can be obtained in hundreds of different forms in your local supermarket? Are you going to replace it with something homemade, such as baking soda and apple cider vinegar? What about something which has less environmental impact? My recommendation: save yourself the brainpower involved in researching alternatives and just forget about the whole idea of putting anything in your hair at all.

Step 3. Take a break.

That’s right, now that the hard part is done (will power, remember), the rest is really pretty simple, right? You just stop putting anything in your hair.

Step 4. Put something in your hair!

Well, of course I’d be lying if I said you could just stop putting stuff in your hair and everything would be hunky dory. You’re hair will look like you just mopped the kitchen floor with it. Take a fine tooth comb to it and all sorts of stuff will come out, the most interesting of which is a kind of grayish greasy substance which looks like rillettes. So of course, you will be desperate to remove this matter from your head. To be totally honest, it doesn’t really matter what you put in your hair, even shampoo. You’ve probably got some of that old bottle lying around, so now’s the time to take a small quantity and clean your hair.

Step 5. Work from home.

Not really. The idea here is to take progressively longer and longer breaks from your usual routine. Using shampoo as your hair cleaner will become progessively less enticing (it really is very harsh) so now is the time to use baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Or just vinegar according to my mom. Baking soda tingles your scalp, though, so I like it. Eventually you’ll only be using shampoo when you go to the barber. Then you’ll be asking the barber not to use shampoo.

Step 6. Nirvana

This is the point when you stop thinking about your hair. It’s funny really, because all that time you were using shampoo, you probably weren’t thinking about your hair either, so it may feel like you haven’t progressed all that much. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. In my related study of addictions, I noticed that addicts were people who had returned to their previous truth, only now they required a foreign substance to achieve that state. Look at credit card abusers, at some point they run out of money, so technically they are in the same place they were when they started taking credit, only now they have to pay the fiddler as well. Look at drug addicts, they end being just as miserable as they were when they started taking the drugs (let’s face it, why would they take drugs in the first place) only now they are drug addicted and miserable. Shampoo is the same, you were once an addict, which was easy enough and not particularly expensive (of course I only ever bought cheap shampoo). But in the Nirvana state of no shampoo, you will not only be mentally free to think about whatever it is you were thinking about before going noshampoo, but you will also be slightly richer and you will doing the planet a favor. Of course the poor cosmetic industry will have to take a tumble, but ah well.

Step 7. Learn from your mistakes

For those of you with children, make their lives easier by never instilling them with the foolish desire to use shampoo. With young’uns, it’s easy, you just stop using shampoo and they never know the difference. With older children, you ought just to explain, or, like me, stop buying shampoo. They’ll thank you for it later.

Do you ever feel like some of your relationships are only skin deep? Even significant others can sometimes give off that hollow thud when you tap them. Well, go noshampoo and in 6 weeks, you’ll have put up a barrier that will separate the dodgy partner from the one that will stick around when times get tough. They’ll never know that in 6 months you’ll be back to normal.

4. You can skip a whole aisle in the supermarket.

Supermarkets are getting more and more daunting. With an entire aisle devoted to shampoo (not to mention the entire aisle devoted to deodorant, shaving products, and conditioners) you’ll be happy in the knowledge that five or ten minutes less of your life will be devoted to something which is completely useless. Spend that extra time with your family, if they can take it.

Don’t you find that social gatherings are pretty stale affairs these days? You can’t even Bush Bash anymore. And then the conversations about kids/family/work dries up pretty fast. This leaves you with little else to talk about, unless you are doing something really cool with your life…like using noshampoo! That’s right…you will be the funkiest most adventurous guy/girl at any social gathering. And, no need to worry about starting meaningless relationships (see point 5).

1. Be a revolutionary!

Che Guevara, where are you? These days, so little is worth getting excited about. What is there to fight for anymore? If you have a poster of Che on your wall, then here’s the way you too can not only do something good for the world, but also actually look a little bit more like Che than you did before. Viva la revolucion!